A friend recently forwarded me an alarming email called “The Brooks Report” which exposes the terrible threat to the nation posed by “Foreign Trade Zones” which are apparently going to give away 257 small towns in the US to the Chinese and other nations and establish them as foreign enclaves outside of the control of our government, possibly as a deal to sell part of America to China to pay off our massive debt.

Of course, the claims are absolutely insane. This conspiracy theory reminds me a lot of the NAU theories and it is similarly based on a gross misinterpretation of fact. Note that there is no link to any legislation or official policy documents supporting any of the claims in the original email. Most of the email is just wild speculation with no basis in fact at all. There’s just enough fact in there to make it sound good and the rest is hogwash.

“THE BROOKS REPORT”

SO THIS IS WHAT OBAMA AND THE CHINESE WERE UP TO, SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST, WRITE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR AND GET THE WORD OUT… VIRGINIA

This is an urgent message! Read this and spread the word! Subject: Foreign Trade Zones. This is unbelievable at first, but you will soon realize that there are several motives for the global communists to physically weave our United States territory together with communist China . Read On! Here’s what is going on!
Each and every one of our state governors has approved and allocated a certain amount of acres of their U.S. state land to be inhabited by Chinese communists –communists straight from China ! They are to set up little towns and live here, supposedly for the purpose of producing Chinese products for sale in the U.S.A. The land the states are giving them for their little towns will be considered “foreign territory”!!! We are told that the laws of the state (in which these Chinese communists dwell) will apply to the communist Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ). Comment: If so, why are they allowed in here!??! Isn’t the whole set up unlawful??? There are 257 of these little communist towns to be built all over the United States . Go to this website and see the list of the states, and how many FTZ’s are to be erected in each and every state! Our nation is being peppered all over with these communist closed towns called “zones”! This insane brainstorm by Washington , D.C. officials was just recently discovered by alert citizens in the State of Idaho , where an FTZ is being built there, just south of Boise , Idaho , possibly 30,000 acres of Idaho is going to be used for that FTZ. Check this site quickly before it is removed:

When you get to this website, be prepared by having enough paper to print 40 pages, listing all the FTZ’s to be built over the whole United States ! 257 of these FTZ’s! It is absolute insanity!! How gullible are we??? The excuse given for creating communist towns all over our nation is that these Chinese people will produce products for sale in the United States , and the FTZ will eliminate overseas shipping costs of the products they create! A bizarre excuse!!! Can’t we manufacture our own products anymore with American workers? How foolish are we to allow this??? Remember the hard-learned lesson taught to gullible people back in ancient times, when the Trojan Horse was built and they pulled it past their protective gates??? Do we Americans look THAT STUPID to the Chinese and to our Washington , D.C. leaders???

It will not mean jobs for Americans. All the help will be Chinese! Besides, it is to be classed as “foreign territory”, remember! You won’t know what is really going on inside the enclave. Is there any danger for Americans to allow this? What do you think?!!!

It is a known fact that China has been preparing for war against the United States ! Many guns are pointed at us. Why should these FTZ’s be allowed??? What is the real reason?? Is it that Washington , D.C. needs foreign help to disarm American citizens (who have privately-owned firearms) so that the federal administration can comply with Public Law 87-297, signed into law by J.F. Kennedy for “general and complete disarmament of the United States “? It is a law continually financed by Washington , D.C. That’s the law that calls for us to have no more army, no more navy, and no more air force, all of which is to be transferred over on a permanent basisto the communist-dominated United Nations! That law also prohibits all firearms from being owned by American citizens!

Without firearms, there will be no more liberty, freedom, or justice in government. Guns are the main core of the check and balance system. Our nation’s founders realized that firearms in the possession of the people are the indispensible safeguard upon which all of the other rights in the “Bill of Rights” depend! That’s why the Second Amendment was meant to be honored, treasured, and preserved!

Some people are wondering if the American land in these FTZ’s is being given as collateral for the huge debt we owe to China ? Some people are asking: “Does China own us and is our land collateral in case wedon’t pay the debt?” China is allowing American businesses to get established in China as FTZ’s. Americans must build the structures in China , and they must employ all Chinese people to do the work in what is built there. After a short amount of years, the Americans must vacate, leave the buildings and let the Chinese keep the technology and the active operation as on-going. What this amounts to is transferring American technology and management to communist China .

FTZ’s are also known as SEZ’s (Special Economic Zones) Please relay this information to all your friends. Someone has to answer for this on state and federal levels! What a set-up for sabotage, espionage, and a study on how to take over the whole United States in a war! Because the newspapers and other media are controlled, they will not be reporting on this unless there is a great public outcry. Remember when being a communist was a punishable crime in the U.S.A. My, how we have changed! Complete reversal. Best to take this information to local public officials as well as all your contacts.

Please do not delay spreading this information.

What this program actually appears to be is something similar to the program of “Duty Free” shops (and it’s based on the same 1934 law which created them) but applied to wholesale businesses with the intention of reducing the tax burden in certain areas to encourage foreign investment and trade in the US. I’m pretty sure it’s terrible economic policy, but it’s not the alarming threat to the nation which this email makes it out to be.

If you check out the FAQ on the site linked to in the email it dispels many of the claims made in the email. For example it states clearly “FTZ sites and facilities remain within the jurisdiction of local, state or federal governments or agencies.” So they are not, in fact, treated as foreign territory in most practical ways and foreign governments will have no authority there.

If you go to the primary site at Customs and Border Protection (it’s name this week anyway) it explains how these zones work in great detail. There is also a simpler explanation on Wikipedia.

In many ways these FTZs are akin to the various business subsidies and tax abatements you see being used by local governments to attract businesses to a particular state or city, where they will waive property taxes, build infrastructure and even pay some costs for businesses to relocate to their jurisdiction. As a rule these are usually very bad policy, trading an increase in taxes for the hope of job creation and an increase in the tax base. The problem is that the tax gains are small because taxes are abated, and once the deal runs out there’s nothing to keep a company from leaving again, taking away whatever benefits it brought. It’s the same thing with these FTZs. They hand out unjustifiable benefits to foreign businesses which are not being offered on an equal basis to their domestic competitors. They may help the balance of trade and specific companies partnering with foreign businesses, but the benefits are short term and it’s a terrible example of government interfering in the natural flow of trade to pick winners and losers and benefit some business interest over others.

These FTZs are terrible policy, but they’re bad enough without adding on paranoid distortions about foreign takeovers of the US, which aren’t supported by this policy. The real facts are alarming and worth being concerned about, but there’s no reason to go absolutely hysterical as the author of this email does. A rational approach to opposing them is likely to be much more effective.

I’m also not inspired with confidence by the fact that the author of the email doesn’t know the difference between Idaho and Iowa.

Dave

32 Responses to ““Foreign Trade Zones” are Bad Policy But Not a Plan to Sell the US to China”

Well, then I would say what is going in in Idaho. Where the US has sold a gold mine to Communist Chinese citizens, then is allowing in a business in which will be owned and operated by the CCP and PLA, and they are also seeking their own airport for such entities. I think you better think again before you say it is not happening. As it is.

Again your statements are not backed by any proof. There is documentation from the US leaders that they are selling US to the Communist Chinese. In which the US will not be able to act in those lands as it will be their sovereign land. I am sorry you are wrong and our leaders are committing treason.

Check the Idaho local politician and government data base. They are selling our land to the Communist Chinese. However, not just land to live on or have a business on whole cities and airports are being sought.

Your statements are not backed by any proof. There is documentation from the US leaders that they are selling US to the Communist Chinese. In which the US will not be able to act in those lands as it will be their sovereign land. I am sorry you are wrong and our leaders are committing treason.

Check the Idaho local politician and government data base. They are selling our land to the Communist Chinese. However, not just land to live on or have a business on whole cities and airports are being sought.

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